Sumadera Temple Part 2

Sumadera is also known for being a location that Matsuo Basho, the famous Haiku poet, wrote about. Here is an example of his haiku.

to the flute's tone
the waves also approach
autumn in Suma

fue no ne ni | nami mo yorikitaru | Suma no aki

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Sumadera Temple Part 1

When I was in Kobe, I took a slight detour before my meeting to visit Sumadera Temple. The temple was originally built in 886. I visited this temple when I lived in Kobe 24 years ago and wanted to see it again.

The temple is famous for its proximity to a famous Heike battle and the location of an episode from the Tale of the Heike, a classic example of Japanese medieval literature.

In 1184, at the end of the battle of Ichi no Tani, Kumagai Naozane (1141-1208) came riding along the beach looking to intercept a leader of the fleeing Heike army. He spotted a single horseman with a finely arrayed horse.


Naozane attacked and managed to wrestle his adversary to the ground and remove his helmet.

To his surprise, it was a young sixteen year old boy. He thought of this own son who was wounded in the battle, and having pity on him, thought to spare his life. But, at that moment, 50 of his fellow samurai came riding into view. Kumagai knew the youth would die and decided to deal the final blow himself with the promise to see that prayers were said for the boy.

Weeping bitterly he cut of the boy's head. Kumagai was so affected by the cruelty of war that he later became a Buddhist priest.

The boy was Taira no Atsumori (1169-1184), a noble from the enemy clan. Kumagai found among his posessions a fine flute that was a gift from the Emperor Toba. When Kumagai brought the flute to his Commander, all who saw it were moved to tears.

The flute is kept in Sumadera.

Blogging about the Bullet Train

This week, I took the Bullet Train from Tokyo to Kobe. It was the first time I had traveled that far by train in Japan.

I started off the morning by picking up some sushi to eat during the journey. I am a fan of Convenience Store sushi; it makes a great breakfast on the go.


I settled in and watched the scenery as we rushed by. I saw Mt. Fuji in the distance but couldn't get a picture in time. After we left the outskirts of Tokyo, the countryside was green and dotted with small villages like the one below.


I like the roof on the building in the picture below. It has a classic Japanese design.

2 1/2 hours later, I arrived in Kobe and took a quick detour on my way to my meeting. More on that later.

Tai Meshi in Tamachi

Last night, I went to dinner with some people from work. We went to a place that gets fish flown in from Matsuyama every day. The sashimi was quite good.

But, the highlight of the evening was a dish called Tai Meshi. The dish is pieces of Tai (sea bream) placed over uncooked rice and steamed with seasonings. This is the pot they used to steam the rice.


And, here is a picture when the rice was done. The rice had a nice mild flavor and the fish was perfectly cooked. It was the first time I've had this dish. And it was a winner.

Lost in Ginza

Japan in July is like a giant steam bath. I arrived in Tokyo on Sunday and have been sweating ever since.

After work yesterday, I took the train to Ginza to look for a present for my son. He has a birthday coming up, and I wanted to get him something here.

I had a map but couldn't figure out how it matched up with the myriad of streets. After walking around in circles for 40 minutes, I finally found the store. I can't remember being so glad to walk into an air conditioned building before. After I picked out the present, I took a deep breath and headed out in the heat again.

Father and son at Fenway

Last night, I took my son to a game at Fenway Park. It was our annual Father and Son evening. We arrived early and sat down. I turned around and saw these original wooden seats in the evening sun. They filled up a few minutes later.

I love to eat peanuts at the ballpark. My son likes fried dough.

It was a great game with Dustin Pedroia hitting a double in the 8th to drive in the winning run. Papelbon got the save with a perfect 9th. Go Sox!

Pioneer for a day...or more

I left the house this morning at 6am to drop my daughters off at a church Youth Conference. The theme this year is a pioneer re-enactment.

Everyone was supposed to dress in 19th century pioneer clothing. The picture above is one of our friends and a "Ma" on the trip. She and her husband took time off work to lead a group of 10 kids on the adventure.

When I dropped off my girls, they saw what they would have for transportation over the next three days. I took a picture of this handcart before they started filling it up.


There was a large pile of belongings to pack into each cart. My daughters' group had around 13 people and what looked like more stuff than could possibly fit into a handcart. Luckily their "Pa" is an engineer (and also a friend of ours). When I left them, he was busily figuring out how to pack everything (see below).

They will push and pull their carts about 5 miles/day over the next three days.

Happy 4th of ...Thanksgiving

Late last week, we had reached our limit with the cold, rainy weather. I heard on the news that in the month of June, Boston only got 28% of the total available sunshine. And on July 1st, it was 62deg and rainy in our town.

So, in our own effort to try to bring the sun back, we decided we had to take some action. The obvious thing to do was to go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving. After a funny look from the check out lady at the grocery store, we had a large turkey and were ready to go. Some friends came over to help us celebrate.

And, the next day, the sun came out.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Last weekend, we went to the Wellesley Summer Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Our kids have seen the movie version and were willing to go along to see the play.

This production was performed in a small intimate theatre with an accomplished cast. I thought "Jack" had the strongest performance.

At the end of the 3rd act, Jack is about to discover his real name, when someone in the audience yelled out "Earnest". Our kids thought that was pretty funny and embarrassing at the same time.